Bangalore: On Tuesday, the third day of the three-day event in Bangalore expressing gratitude to India for 50 years of providing refuge to Tibetans in exile, the stage was set to reflect and review the relevance of Buddha's message of universal human values in the 21st century. In a soul-searching session on Buddhism in the 21st century, Geshe Lhakdor, an eminent Buddhist scholar who served as the translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more than 16 years, emphasized the absolute necessity for ethical values of love, compassion, affection, and trust to find ultimate happiness and harmony in today's world.
Geshe Lhakdor told the gathering of Indians and Tibetans that since Buddhism primarily symbolizes equality and respect for fundamental human values, it can play an important role in the 21st century of modernization.
“Buddhism is a teaching which cures and heals the sickness of the human mind. So long as we have the physical and mental illness with constant need of doctor and medicine, we will be in constant need of Buddha's teachings,” Geshe Lhakdor said.
Describing Buddha's teachings as spirituality rather than religion, Geshe Lhakdor said, “We need a spiritual revolution involving complete reorientation of our ways of life and thinking to stop habituation [which leads us] to neglect the needs of other beings…Buddhism is not against development; it teaches us to consider the welfare of other beings in this interconnected world,” he said while emphasizing his points with short inspiring parables.
“Human values like love, compassion, affection, wisdom, nonviolence and morality,” Geshe Lhakdor mentioned, are “the best friends of human beings.” These qualities, he said, “will never betray us.”
Without duplicity, you should “treat other sentient beings as you treat yourself in daily life, by understanding the absolute truth of reality in accordance with the law of nature, which is transience or impermanence,” Geshe Lhakdor added.
He underlined that a positive mental attitude can bring miracles and happiness in one's life, and that one should appreciate the Buddha nature within every sentient beings.
Geshe Lhakdor finally added that Tibetans are privileged to return the teachings of Buddha, preserved in its pristine form, back to India, where Buddha was born.
